After winning at Idaho State, Boise State’s new softball coach returns with a plan
Boise State softball will head into the 2027 season with a new head coach, but the man in charge is certainly no stranger to the capital city — or the Gem State.
Andrew Rich was hired as the school’s fifth head coach in program history last week. He replaced five-year head coach Justin Shults, who left Boise State in early June to become an associate head coach at Arkansas.
For Rich, this isn’t an arrival in Boise, but a return.
Rich spent 2019-21 with Boise State — the first two years as an assistant coach and the final year as associate head coach. Then ahead of the 2022 season, he made the move east to Pocatello to become the head coach at Idaho State.
An honor-laden five seasons followed, with Rich guiding Idaho State to three Big Sky regular season titles and the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2026. Rich was the 2023 and 2025 Big Sky coach of the year, and shared the honor in 2026.
Now he’s back at Boise State looking to continue a successful coaching run.
“There’s been opportunities over the past few years that might have been great opportunities, and it just never really felt right going through the process,” Rich told the Idaho Statesman on Tuesday. “And you get that feeling when you talk to people, and it’s like, that’s the right fit, that’s the right feeling.”
Boise State barely wasted time getting Rich. Shults’ departure came on June 9 and the new coach’s arrival was June 17. Rich described the interview process as “really quick,” while Athletic Director Jeramiah Dickey said in a news release that his “head, heart and gut” were aligned in knowing Rich was the man to take charge of the program.
“The time that I got to spend with Jeramiah and with the search committee, it felt right,” Rich said. “It was talking to familiar people, talking to people who share a similar passion for giving the student-athletes a great experience, and for striving for championships and wanting to be great.”
Rich has become accustomed to championships from his time at Idaho State, where he turned the Bengals from a middle-of-the-pack team into a strong program. In 2025, he guided Idaho State to its first winning season (37-17, 12-2 Big Sky) since 2016.
He’ll be bringing with him pitching coach Kelsey Broadus and assistant coach Karlee Johnson — a pair of BSU softball alums — to provide a level of continuity and familiarity within his staff.
And despite being on the job for just over a week, Rich said he knows where he needs to focus to improve upon the Broncos’ 2026 season, when they went 25-30 overall and 11-14 in the Mountain West.
Tapping into the high school talent in Idaho — Rich served as Boise State’s recruiting coordinator during his first stint in the Treasure Valley — is paramount, he said.
“Something that we take big pride in is when there are players in the state of Idaho that can help us and are going to make a difference, we’ve got to do everything that we can in our power to keep them here,” Rich said. “I don’t want to be playing teams that have kids from Idaho that are beating us. I want them here making a difference for us.”
One of those players is 2026 6A Idaho Player of the Year Hailey Brennan. The Owyhee Storm pitcher committed to Boise State in December 2025 but won’t graduate until spring 2027, meaning Rich will have to wait a year before he gets to add Brennan.
However, she’s the exact type of player Rich wants to add — a hard-to-hit pitcher who will bulk up a staff that he wants to see improve. The Broncos had a team ERA of 4.57 last season, with only one pitcher, freshman Loula-Rae McNamara, posting a sub-4.00 mark (3.65).
“Pitching is what carries you at the end of the day. You’ve got to have good pitching in the circle, and we’re gonna have a deep pitching staff,” Rich said. “We’ve got some new arms coming in, and we’ll continue to add to that, but there’s a ton of potential there to have a great pitching staff that can lead us to where we want to go.”
